


Reassignment

by bookworm03



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 07:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7882207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookworm03/pseuds/bookworm03
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Ben and Chris hadn't been granted the extension at the end of Flu Season?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reassignment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [c00kie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/c00kie/gifts).



> This happened while talking to c00kie about the end of Flu Season. 
> 
> So, naturally, she prompted me for it. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! Comments and kudos are wonderful and amazing and will always make my day!

“The powers that be think we can do the most good in the wonderful town of Snerling, Ben. Harvest Festival is exciting, but the parks department seems to have that under control. Don’t you agree?” 

Chris’s piercingly blue eyes bear into Ben, making him gulp hard.

“What uh...I mean...you know, you’re just sort of starting things with Ann and that seems to be going well so...”

“Ann Perkins is the most beautiful, exceptional, amazing woman I have ever met” Chris patted his arm and this time, Ben fought back an eyeroll. Everyone woman was beautiful and exceptional in Chris’s mind. He’s just a touch hyperbolic.

“So, buddy, we’ll finish out the week and then we’re on the move for the next great adventure! I hear the cows outnumber the people forty to one!”

“Great” Ben allows his eyes to fall shut for a beat longer than necessary. When he does he somehow ends up picturing Leslie’s bright smile when he handed her waffles and soup in the hospital the day before.

Well, Chris is right, she has a great handle on everything Harvest Fest related. She doesn’t need him there.

He might’ve wanted to be there anyway. Maybe that’s the problem.

*****

It’s over as abruptly as it begins. They send out a perfunctory email to all of City Hall announcing that Pawnee is no longer in crisis, thanking them for their hospitality over the last few weeks and wishing them luck in the future.

It’s the same email they send to every town when an assignment ends.

Not every town has a Leslie Knope in it though. 

He hears her footsteps thundering down the hall several seconds before she appears in his doorway, her blue eyes huge and frantically searching his face.

“You’re leaving!” she almost sounds accusatory and Ben tries to shrug.

“We were always leaving.”

“But... _ Harvest Fest! _ You were actually helping! You were helping me with local businesses and doing something that didn’t involve hacking budgets and…”

“And it’s a great project” he gestures towards her. “And I’m happy we supported it and I think it’s going to be a huge success because you…”

Her cheeks tinge pink and he lowers his eyes.

“But I - Chris and I” it’s his turn to blush. “We were only here until the town was back on its feet and it is and now it’s onto the next one - ”

“Pawnee is special!” she snaps, sounding as angry as she did the first week he arrived. Ben knows this now. Ben wants to tell her Pawnee’s special because of what Ron said, Leslie’s special. No other department has a Leslie Knope, no other town has a Leslie Knope. She’s a game changer, she gets things done, she makes the impossible possible.

The way her eyes burn into him makes his stomach twist. Is she upset?

She can’t be. Why would she be. No one’s ever been upset he left anywhere before. Sometimes they’re parading him out of town and celebrating his departure with fireworks they didn’t budget for.

“Well” Leslie’s face relaxes and then brightens. “At least let me throw you a going away party! Because you really have helped us a lot and we want to thank you.”

“Leslie, that’s not - ”

“I’ll pay out of pocket, it won’t cost the city a dime!”

“It’s not necessary - ”

“SORRY BEN, I CAN’T HEAR YOU, I’M ALREADY IN PARTY PLANNING MODE!”

*****

The rest of the week passes without much fanfare. Ron shakes his hand on the last day, Sewage Joe asks if he wants to borrow one of the interns (gross) and Chris and Ann have some weird breakup that ends with Ann eating a lot of ice cream in Leslie’s office when she thinks no one can see her and Chris doing even more sit-ups than usual. 

Maybe Chris really did care about Ann.

Ben wraps things up in the office by 4:53PM, packs his briefcase and strolls down the hallway towards his car. He hasn’t heard anything else about this supposed party, so he assumes Leslie decided she had too much on her plate to make it worth her while.

Which, fair enough, why does a state auditor who wanted to fire you initially get a going away party?

Not that it would’ve just been for him anyway.

He stops in the parks department one final time (it’s on his way to the parking lot, it’d be rude not to) and something large and heavy (Andy) tackles him to the ground while someone else snickers (Tom).

Ben’s blindfolded and lifted to his feet before he’s marched outside and into the sunlight. 

“You have no idea where we are, do you Ben?”

“Uhhh, we’re in the City Hall parking lot - ”

“Noooooo idea where we are. We could be in Berlin!”

“I’m going to say we’re still in Pawnee - ”

“Shut up, punk” Tom kicks him lightly. “And do what Agent Macklin says.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“Whatever you say, Agent Macklin.”

*****

They’re at Ann’s house.

He can tell because Andy shouts about the empty lot that used to be a pit where he broke his leg.

So yes, definitely at Ann’s house.

Ben trips over her steps because nobody warns him and faceplants on the porch. Tom snickers more and Andy hefts him up again.

“Tell me, Macklin” Ben tries. “Who put you up to this?”

“As the best FBI agent on the force I answer only to President Hannah Dash.”

Oh, boy. Ben has a feeling he knows who President Hannah Dash is.

For some reason that makes him smile for the first time all day.

The inside of the house is warm, muggy almost. It’s still hot outside as summer slips away and they start to turn the corner into fall. Next week Leslie has to get the police force to volunteer for Harvest Fest before they can start with the rest of their planning.

“Andy!” He hears Leslie’s bright voice. “I told you to bring him here, not kidnap him!”

“Sorry, boss” Andy pushes Ben forwards and small, nimble hands, remove the blindfold from his face.

She’s standing in front of him in jeans and a soft red blouse that makes her hair look blonder and her eyes appear bluer. She beams, dusting off his shoulders like he’s covered in dust before she takes a step back.

“Surprise!” she shouts.

Ben doesn’t point out she already suggested the party on Monday. He doesn’t want to, honestly. She looks so pleased with herself, so  _ happy, _ really. It’s nice to think some event actually centered around him could make Leslie this happy.

“Let’s get you a drink!” she grabs him by the elbow and drags him into the kitchen.

Ben has no desire to protest.

*****

He drinks three beers and watches as people file in. Chris hugs everyone, Ben shakes their hands if they come up to him and Tom declares it  _ baller songs only _ time, which means furniture is pushed out of the way and dancing starts.

Chris shines, of course, gyrating wildly in the center of the room while the rest of the crowd gives him a wide berth. Andy’s trying to get April to talk to him, Ron’s in the corner with a tumbler of scotch and Leslie’s running around, offering sugar cookies to everyone and making sure they’re having fun.

The sugar cookies have  _ First in friendship _ written on them. Tom says Leslie should’ve put  _ Fourth in obesity _ instead. 

Ben eats four cookies. They’re delicious and it seems appropriate.

“Are you having fun!?” She shouts at him. Ben nods, insides burning as something bubbles inside him. She’s pretty, so pretty. He always thought Leslie was pretty but she’s even prettier right now.

Somewhere between the time she bites her lip and the time she offers him a napkin it fully sinks in how huge his crush on her is. He realizes part of the reason he wanted to stay in Pawnee and work on Harvest Fest was because he wanted to keep working with her.

He wants to hear her ideas, every last one.

He wants to watch her build more things from the ground up.

He wants to be there when she finally gets her permit for her park.

He wants to see her on a stage, behind a podium, changing what she’s supposed to change.

He’s met a lot of women, but nobody else is a Leslie Knope and that thought has never been more clear in his mind.

“Beeeeen” she whines cutely and his lips twitch.

“Yeah?” 

“I said you don’t look like you’re having fun!”

He chuckles and leans down to promise he is. He catches a whiff of her hair and it smells like lavender.

Fuck, he’s a goner.

How did he not realize this the minute he started making her chicken soup?

*****

She stands on a chair at ten and gives a toast to him and Chris. She says nobody wanted him there when he started, maybe, but it means a lot he and Chris had faith in their town.

It doesn’t seem to mean a lot to anyone else, but Ben smiles at her and there’s a reasonably enthusiastic round of applause.

He’s tipsy and Leslie’s cheeks are flushed and Ben wonders if she kisses with the same earnestness she does everything else.

He’s been wanting to kiss her. He’d been trying to buy himself more time to maybe convince her she wants to kiss him too.

He doesn’t have more time though.

Which is why, as the party’s dying down and people are talking about heading to the Snakehole he follows her to Ann’s room where the coats are spread over the bed. 

“Are you coming to the bar?”

“Uhhh, maybe. Are you going?”

Leslie drops the coat she’s holding and straightens, as if something just clicked inside of her. The room’s dark, with only the light from the hallway filtering through the cracks and the moon glowing through the drapes.

“I...um...yes!” She shakes her head quickly. “Yes! Definitely! It’ll be fun! There’s no way Snerling will be as fun as Pawnee!”

“No” he licks his lips. ‘There’s not.”

“Because Pawnee  _ is _ special.”

“Right” he takes a step forward. “I have to admit…”

“Yay!” she pushes him gently by the shoulders. “We converted you!”

Ben chuckles, but it catches in his throat as Leslie’s eyes lock on his.

“Anyway” she gives her head a shake like she’s trying to force something from her mind. “You definitely need to come to the Snakehole now - ”

Ben’s lips land on Leslie’s and he swallows her gasp as his fingers tangle in her soft curls. She’s motionless under him and he’s almost afraid to pull away. She might slap him - she  _ should  _ slap him, probably - but the more he thinks about it the more he can’t leave Pawnee without knowing how Leslie Knope kisses.

It seems like an eternity where she does nothing.

And then her hands slide, up his arms and to the back of his head. His lungs are burning, so his mouth drops away, but before he can check her face Leslie’s pulling him back into her, parting her lips and filling his mouth with her tongue.

_ Good lord _ .

He groans and backs her into Ann’s closet door. The kisses grow longer and her fingers grip harder. They’re in his hair, his collar, the tails of his shirt (when had it even become untucked?) as his palm drops down to cup her ass.

They both moan.

Ben’s starting to speak and Leslie’s pulling him down for more when the door to the room flies open.

They break apart so quickly Ben almost falls backwards.

“Dudes!” Andy flails wildly, beer in hand. “Cabs are here! Let’s roll!”

“Uhhh we’re...it’s such a beautiful night, Ben wants one more walk through a Pawnee park.”

“Uhhh, right” He rubs the back of his neck. “That’s...I want that.” 

“We’ll meet you there!”

“Yes!” Ben agrees way too enthusiastically. “We’ll catch up!”

“SWEET, THEN I DEFINITELY CALL SHOTGUN!”

Andy sprints back out of the room. They wait until his footsteps can’t be heard and the front door slams shut.

Leslie’s eyes widen slightly.

“Ann?” she calls. No answer.

“Ron?”

Silence.

“Um…” she rubs her mouth. “Let’s...we might…”

Be alone. They might be alone in Ann’s house.

God, Ben wishes he hadn’t drank so much. He would’ve kissed her without a drop of alcohol, if he’s being honest with himself.

He would’ve kissed her a long time ago.

Leslie leads him back into the living room and sure enough, it’s emptied of everyone. He can practically feel the tension in her shoulders, maybe because he's exactly the same. They're both wondering what happens now. 

“I guess” Ben claws at his cheek. “I guess we should go for a walk in the park?”

Her expression relaxes into an easy smile. 

“The parks are kind of creepy this late - but don’t tell anyone I said that - would you settle for a walk around lot 48?”

She stretches out her hand and Ben’s heart starts to pound in his chest.

“I’d...yes, that sounds great, actually.”

Her fingers slip between his as she pulls him out into the darkness.

He’s not sure what happens next, but with Leslie Knope he’s always willing to find out.


End file.
